Image sensors have become ubiquitous. They are widely used in digital still cameras, cellular phones, security cameras, medical equipment, automobiles, and other applications. The technology used to manufacture image sensors, and in particular CMOS and CCD image sensors, has continued to advance at a great pace. For example, the demands of higher resolution, lower power consumption, and smaller devices have encouraged the further miniaturization and integration of the image sensor and associated elements.
FIG. 1 is a partially schematic cross-sectional illustration of a portion of a cellular phone 5 with a camera module 20 mounted to a printed circuit board 10 in accordance with the prior art. In FIG. 1 the camera module 20 is mounted to the printed circuit board 10 via a socket 60. The socket 60 is configured to physically and electrically couple the camera module 20 to the printed circuit board 10. The camera module 20 includes a housing 22 that carries an image sensor die 25 with pixels and integrated circuits, color filters 29, lenses 28, and an additional processor 27 with additional integrated circuits. Additionally, the camera module 20 includes passive electronic components such as resistors or capacitors. In FIG. 1, first passive electronic components 30a are carried inside the housing 22 of the camera module 20 and second passive electronic components 30b are carried outside the housing 22.
Because the first passive electronic components 30a are carried inside the housing 22, the housing must be large enough in the X direction or in width W to accommodate the first passive electronic components 30a. The second passive electronic components 30b are positioned on a bottom portion of the camera module. In order to keep the height H, or dimension in the Z direction, of the camera module 20 and printed circuit board 10 combination small, the socket 60 has been configured to allow the second passive electronic components 30b to extend past the socket 60 and into a cavity 17 in the printed circuit board 10, as shown in FIG. 1. It can be expensive and time consuming during the production process to produce the cavity 17 in the printed circuit board 10. Furthermore, in many cases, the use of the cavity with the external mounted electronic components does little to reduce the overall height of the camera module and printed circuit board arrangement.